You must be born again.

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3

Salvation is probably the most debated subject in the world, even among those who call themselves “Christians” there is much debate. In the end it will be the one single issue that will deliver you the most glory it your right or punishment if you’re wrong. Those that are wrong will without question will spend eternity in the lake of fire. Sin has brought much bad to man, when Adam sinned God counted all mankind sinners, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” Romans 5:12 This means that we are all sinners in Adam, we are not condemned for our own sins, we were born sinners, we are born with dead spirits, we were born condemned. “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:18 This is what God was talking about in Romans 5:19 “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” Notice in verse 12 God used the word (all) which includes everyone born on this earth. Here in verse 19 God uses the word (many) not once but twice, but why, please remember this, God does not play with words, when God uses a word, it has a direct meaning. In verse 12 God is referring to every soul born, in verse 19 God breaks these lost souls into two groups, the vessels of honor and the vessels fitted for destruction. When God says “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners…” These must be the one’s condemned to eternal hell because of Adams Sin and will never be redeemed. The second group, “…so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” These must be the one’s that will be redeemed by the Lamb of God, who are made righteous in Jesus Christ by being born again. For that “many” that were “…so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” Paul wrote in verse 21 “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” The words, “sin hath reigned unto death” means sin has enslaved them unto death with no escape on their own. However, for the second many, “…grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” These group will be born again and be redeemed by the blood by the Lamb by grace reigning in them. Not every living soul will be saved, God never gave every living soul His gift of “salvation grace” only this second “many” in verse 19 will ever be saved.

Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again, these words means that one must be born from above, and anew. The old man is condemned by the sin of Adam, their spirit is born dead and unable to respond to God’s word. They cannot hear it, they cannot believe it, they cannot receive it because they are dead. There must be a quickening first, that is the spirit in a person must be made alive, life comes from God only. Read this very slowly and powerfully to yourself, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (13) Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12 – 13 We must be born of God, by God, and through Jesus Christ and by grace. Only a remnant will, all other are condemned to eternal hell. If you have not been born from above, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the blood of Jesus, then you have not been born from above! There is no other way, if one does not go through Jesus Christ then they will never see nor enter the Kingdom of God.  

 

God Loves You Believer!

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

If you’re a Christian always remember these words “God loves you” He always has and He always will, no matter what happens in your life, God loves you. Christians need to be reminded that God’s love is not shown in only good things in our life, but in our salvation, in His mercy, and in His grace that He gives to us every day. God loved us so much that He sent His very own Beloved Son to redeem us in His death, burial, and resurrection, and by the shedding of His glorious blood. Christian, whatever happens in your life on this earth does not add to or subtract God’s love to us. Therefore, we can not count God’s blessings by money, houses, cars, worldly possessions, or your status on this earth. Our blessing in life is what we do to bring glory to God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. There are a lot of biblically unintelligent people who try to tell you to measure blessings on what you good have in this life. God paints us a much different image in the scriptures, God tells us that we shall have trials, tribulations, and even persecutions. God tells us that we will suffer for His sake because our Saviour suffered for us. No, our blessing from God is not our possessions but rather our walk on this earth for His glory. God told us, “that all things work together for good to them that love God,” When Jesus saved Saul of Tarsus Jesus said, “But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: (16) For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.” Acts 9:15 – 16 The Apostle Paul did suffer, while many of God’s blessing were with Him in what he accomplished he suffered much for the Lord, even being jailed three times. Almost all the Apostles suffered martyrdom when they died. Tens of millions of God’s children suffered martyrdom when they were murdered in the so called “dark ages” and millions more through out other parts of history. Even today countless Christians in this world live in or below poverty and still count themselves worthy to call God their Father and tell you how blessed they are. Our blessings as Christians are our walk in the Lord, it has nothing to do with our possessions in this life, but those we carry with us into heaven called crowns and rewards. Peter and the other Apostles were arrested and persecuted for preaching the gospel, but they said, “Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:29 They did not mind the arrest, the persecution, they just wanted to obey God, no matter the cost, it was a blessing. “And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.” Acts 5:41 What is your blessing in life, a new home, a new car, more money, or serving the Lord even in persecution. Would it be a blessing to die a martyr’s death for the Lord? Would you still attend church if the government prohibited it, or would you just stop going. Folk’s, our blessing in life is our service to the Lord, anything you do in righteousness is a glory to Jesus our glorious Saviour. We must understand that God has predestinated our life, God is our Saviour in life, and God will bless us for our labor for His glory. Not necessarily with earthly possessions but with rewards that will last and eternity. What is your blessing, do you sacrifice for the Lord, do you attend church no matter what? “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” Acts 5:42 Nothing happens in a Believers life that God has not ordained for them, therefore if bad things happens in your life, count them blessings also and never forget that God is holding you up.   

Do you Worry? It is sinful!

Matthew 6:25 – 34

We might say that it is natural to worry, and it is, but it is still a lack of faith in the Lord. God said, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 This is not a definition of faith, but a description of what faith does and how it works. The definition of the word faith is, persuasion, that is, credence; moral conviction, it is our conviction in God. Our faith is how strong we believe in God, how strong we trust God in our life, for our daily needs. Look what God said in the previous chapter. Hebrews 10:22 - 23 “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)” As Christians, our growing closer to trusting God in faith, is trusting Him even though we can not see the end result. The Lord said, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering” We not only trust God for our daily needs but also our daily walk, our Christian walk, we should trust God in every single aspect of our life. Our faith defines our conviction in God, it is our personal gauge of how much we trust God. God said, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” Matthew 6:27 The word “stature” is talking about your height or age as defined by most, but it does carry the definition of “maturity” which could tell us that our age in the Lord or maturity in the life. If God is as the bible explains, and if we trust God as the bible explains, then what part of our life can we change? If God is Omniscient, then there is noting that God does not know about your life. If God has ordered our life, and He has, then what part of our life should we not trust Him for. The greatest faith of a Christian is the one who trust God the most. God said, “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? (31) Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?”  Matthew 6:30 - 31 This does not mean that we get lazy and just trust God, God told us to work, He told us to live our life, but to trust Him for the maturity of your life. Listen to this example, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15 But the bible is a revolution of the Holy Spirit. However, God promised if you study He will increase our knowledge of the word of truth. However, if one fails to study your not going to increase your knowledge. But we still trust God to teach us and give us knowledge and understanding of His word. Faith, real faith is trusting God in all things. “God said, For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” James 4:15 We are to trust God for tomorrow and every other day, if God feeds the birds, then God will most certainly feed and cloth us, His children. So, our gauge of our faith is how much do we trust God? God said, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (34) Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Matthew 6:33 - 34 What did God mean when He said, “and all these things shall be added unto you.” God said, you seek the things needed for God’s kingdom and you seek His righteousness, and your increase in life will be added as God gives it. Folks, worry is sin, it’s a lack of trust in God. Don’t worry about tomorrow, pray about tomorrow. If God supplies all of creation, He can and will supply our life needs. Our thoughts need to be on seeking God’s righteousness and not sinfully worrying about things we cannot change. “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. (6) So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” Hebrews 13:5 - 6 

Who is Jesus asking The Father to forgive?

Luke 23:34 “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”

As I was doing some study on a sermon when I was pointed to this scripture and this quote shined like a bright light, “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do…” I remember reading years ago that Jesus prayed for forgiveness for those that crucified Him, but the question came to my mind, why? I understand that what these Jews and Roman soldiers did to Jesus was in ignorance. But every sin a lost person does is in ignorance almost. There are a lot of Christians that does things against God out of ignorance. It would be fine if I prayed this prayer for them, but Jesus, the Son of God? Jesus was/is the Christ and the Son of God, His Father before the foundation of the world had given to Him a fold or a remnant of human souls out of the world. The eternal covenant between the Father and His Beloved Son was that He was to be born the Son of man and give His life on that cross for their sins. Jesus said, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10 His focus as the Son of man was to redeem this remnant that His Father had chosen and gifted Him with before the foundation of the world. At no point in His human life was Jesus not God’s Son, not for one moment did Jesus make a mistake or do something that was contradictive to His being the second part of the Trinity. Jesus, both as the Son of God and the Son of man was always God’s Son and without error in His actions and thoughts. This question crossed my mind as I looked at this passage of scripture, why would Jesus pray for the lost that are not the elect? Why would Jesus ever pray for the non-elected for anything, wouldn’t that be a contradiction to His deity? It was Jesus, that before He was arrested that said these words, “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.” John 17:9 God told the Prophet Jeremiah these words, “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.” Jeremiah 7:16 Why is it when these people are crucifying God’s Son called the Son of man did Jesus pray that the Father forgive them for their ignorance of crucifying Him? To what profit would that have been, I’m not Theologian by any stretch of the imagination but I see this prayer not for the ones crucifying Jesus. This is what I see, there is no need to pray for the salvation or the forgiveness of the non-elected, God’s not going to save them nor is God going to forgive their sins out of ignorance or otherwise. I can see no reason to ask God to forgive their sin, therefore there must be another answer why He prayed for His Father to forgive. I believe that for Jesus must have had us on His mind or at least some elect. Because For Jesus to ask the Father to forgive these hateful sinners who crucified the Christ, the very Messiah would be, I believe wrong. Again what Good would it do for Jesus to have asked the Father to forgive these hatful sinners of their sin for crucifying Him? I believe, as Jesus continued to pray in John 17, we read these words, “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.” John 17:11 that we, the elected of the Father was this prayer for. Jesus must have had us on His mind as He was about to give-up the ghost because the whole crucifixion was about us. We were absolutely on His mind the whole time because it was for us, He died, not for the non-elect. All I can say is, Thank You Jesus for being my intercessor and mediator to our Father. God tells us as Christians to pray for those who persecute us or despitefully use us, because we do not know who the elect are. It is thought that some of these involved in the crucifixion was later saved, but I’m sure a small number. Maybe it was for them that Jesus prayed for, but I simply cannot see Jesus the very Christ, the Son of God praying for people who were involved in the crucifixion for no purpose. I have investigated many commentaries on this, and most either ignore it or skip it all together. One even said it was not in the original text. Really? This is my conclusion, either Jesus prayed for those elect that were involved in the crucifixion or He prayed for the elect sinners altogether. We do read in Acts 3:17 “And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.” I cannot believe that Jesus prayed for the Father to forgive any non-elect especially the chief priest or Roman soldiers.       

 

A Servants Pay.

"For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. (21) What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. (22) But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. (23) For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:20 - 23

In this world there are two types of servants, servants of God and servants of Satan. Sometimes a servant of God may serve Satan, but a servant of Satan never serves God. God said, “For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.” Why is a servant of sin free from righteousness? It is because a lost person cannot serve God, he is not under righteousness because the lost soul is enslaved to sin. The lost sinner is living in total depravity which means there is no good in the lost soul. Jesus said, “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” John 8:34 This means there is no good in a lost soul because the lost sinner is totally controlled by their enslavement to sin and Satan. God said, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Romans 6:6 The “old man” must have been crucified so that the body of sin might have been destroyed. When Jesus went to the cross, He took our old man with Him, our old nature sinful nature was crucified on the cross with Jesus. A saved soul has the ability to serve the Lord unlike the lost. Jesus Christ took our sinfulness with Him to Calvary and shed His blood to cleanse our sins, therefore releasing us from the curse of sin and the power of Satan. The very reason God calls the lost soul dead is because their inner spirit is dead to God, and God deals with us within our spirit. The reason God calls them dead is because God does not allow them to serve Him in righteousness. Why is this, it is because they are not God’s servant, God knows His servants and He allows nothing glorious to come from a lost soul. Paul wrote these words, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Romans 7:18 Paul always remembered that he was a Jew, he always remembered what he did as a Jew. When Paul said that nothing good was in him, he was speaking of his lost Jewish works. Paul certainly did many wonderful things for God after Jesus saved him. Therefore, Paul wrote these words, "For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. (10) But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." 1 Corinthians 15:9 – 10 Paul recognized that because of his sinful life he never should have been called an Apostle, but no Christian should have ever been saved, that’s why it’s called grace. Paul also said, “…his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Paul did not waste the wonderful grace that God had given him, and neither should any Believer in Jesus Christ. How is your service to the Lord, are you wasting God’s grace or are you redeeming the time? Since God gave us His blessed grace, we now have the fruits unto holiness, “…and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness…”. While the lost soul can only serve the sin they are enslaved too, Christians have been freed from that sin enslavement. The Holy Spirit has given us some new spiritual gifts, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, (23) Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Galatians 5:22 – 23 The lost sin enslaved sinner has none of these, they only have the sinfulness they were born with. The saved soul has a living spirit and new godly fruits to serve God with. We are supposed to use our new spiritual gifts and our living spirit to serve the Lord. "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. (25) If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." Galatians 5:24 – 25 Even though we see all God has done for us in Jesus Christ, some still have an issue serving the Lord. Jesus crucified the old flesh for us, God gave us the fruits needed to serve Him, God even commands that we walk in the Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, that is in God’s word. Why are so many Christians having such an issue walking in the Spirit? God even gave us, “…the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Eternal life is a gift, our pay as His servants is the rewards, He gives us. Salvation is not a reward, it is not earned, it is a gift, you must work to earn rewards. 1 Corinthians 3:13 - 15 "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. (14) If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. (15) If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."  What will your pay be?